Health IT

#HIMSS16 Day 3 Buzz: Is there a Donald Trump effect with interoperability policy?

Either way, it’s put up or shut up time with everything that comes after HIMSS.

By Chris Seper on March 02, 2016

Donald Trump healthcare

No one believes the politicians – or their collaborators – any more.

An announcement about interoperability on Day 1 of HIMSS16 has led to a lot of great PR for the big players in the industry. But I get the increasing feeling it’s going over like a lead balloon among the rank-and-file, been-there-done-that-bought-the-shirt members of the health IT community who have been preaching interoperability for years.

There was the tweet from yesterday, and then we have this from a MedCity News contributor today throwing full-shade on any solution coming out of HIMSS: “Healthcare IT, reborn into the latest vendor initiative, costing billions of dollars and who knows how many thousands of lives.”

Maybe this is a reach, but I was reflecting on all this with the backdrop of Super Tuesday and this outstanding column by Peggy Noonan on the rise of Donald Trump.

There are the protected and the unprotected. The protected make public policy. The unprotected live in it. The unprotected are starting to push back, powerfully.

Does this apply to the interoperability attitudes at HIMSS? Either way, it’s put up or shut up time with everything that comes after HIMSS16.

presented by

HIMSS’ most shameful revelation

Not shocked that there’s a gap. Shocked that the gap is so large: the HIMSS IT salary survey found that “in the field of healthcare IT, men made on average $124,000 to women’s $101,000.”

Some takes on HIMSS’ leadership survey

You can mine the 27th annual leadership survey yourself right here. But here is some early interpretation on the numbers:

  • Clinicians have a positive influence on organizations’ IT attitudes. – FierceHealthIT
  • HIMSS Leadership Survey Plumbs Issues Around Clinical Informatics, IT Compensation – Healthcare Informatics
  • HIMSS Leadership Survey: 4 Key Findings to Know – HIT Consultant

Heroics at HIMSS

Via HISTalk:

Re: HIMSS. A gentleman with a HIMSS badge was walking through the Mirage lobby with a shuffled, stuttered walk. A woman stopped him, noticed his eyes, and realized he was having a stroke. She dropped her bags, ran to the front to get paramedic help, and returned to be with him. Several others had noticed, including myself, and from behind assumed it was a disability. It took a special person to stop, look at his eyes, and help.”

Read the rest, which begins: ” It’s likely that few of the big-bucks people at the conference would have any idea what to do if faced with a patient in distress…”

Other headlines of note

  • Blog: EHR adoption is a great success! Except that docs still hate them. – Modern Healthcare
  • Judy Faulkner: ‘Good software is art’ – Healthcare IT News
  • DeSalvo calls on private sector has to help ensure interoperability – Federal Times
  • Clinical IT execs to play greater role in care. – Health Data Management
  • How one military officer initiated a ‘culture overhaul’ in a failing ER through data utilization. – DOTmed News

More on #HIMSS16 on #HCSM

Photo: Getty Images